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Despite a substantial decrease in postoperative mortality, morbidity after pancreatic resections is still high, even at high-volume centers. It has been recently suggested that early removal of postoperative drainages is associated to a decreased rate of intra-abdominal complications, with particular regard to pancreatic fistula. Furthermore, our research group demonstrated that measuring amylase value in drainages (AVD) on postoperative day 1 plays a cardinal role in predicting the developement of abdominal complications, including pancreatic fistula. In particular, patients with an AVD lower than 5000 IU/L in postoperative day 1 were considered at low risk of fistula. Therefore, the investigators designed a randomized prospective trial on early (postoperative day 3) versus standard (postoperative day 5) drainages removal after pancreatic resections in patients at low risk of developing pancreatic fistula (AVD < 5000 IU/L in postoperative day 1) to test whether drainages "per se" influence postoperative complication rates and to eventually validate a fast-track policy in pancreatic resections.

removal of postoperative drainages at different time points (postoperative day 3 versus postoperative day 5)

Active Comparator: Standard drain removal

Drain removal on postoperative day 5

Procedure: Postoperative drain removal

removal of postoperative drainages at different time points (postoperative day 3 versus postoperative day 5)

Eligibility

Information from the National Library of Medicine

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Ages Eligible for Study:

Child, Adult, Senior

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

No

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

Patients undergone either pancreaticoduodenectomy (reconstruction by pancreaticojejunostomy) or distal pancreatectomy with an amylase value in drains on postoperative day 1 less than 5000 IU/L

Exclusion Criteria:

Pancreaticoduodenectomy reconstructed with pancreaticogastrostomy

Clinical suspect of postoperative haemorrhage within 72hours after the operation

Clinical suspect of biliary fistula

Fluid collection greater than 3cm at an ultrasound carried out on postoperative day 3

Contacts and Locations

Information from the National Library of Medicine

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT00931554